Fish Missing Most Of Its Tail...whats Happening?

[AKIRELAND]

Hi, I am a newbie as far as keeping fish is concerned.

We have a tank in work (think its a 60 ltr capacity) with 6 cichlids in it. The smallest of the lot ( I think its a firebird, it is greyish with stripes) has been hiding in rocks for the last few days and I thought that it was getting hassle from the others as one or two are aggressively chasing the others around at the moment. I noticed today that most of its fin tail is missing. I have read a few forums this morning and cannot figure out whether its fin rot or if it was attacked by one of the others. It seems to be eating ok but it doesnt move around the tank very far and is constantly looking for places to shelter.

Can anyone suggest what it could be? I also notice that some of the fish appear dirty.. There is a yellow one and he has what appears to be a dirt stripe all the way across the top of its back. The others look a bit scruffy too. I have recently changed about 1/2 of the tank water. They didnt appear this dirty before this. In fact they were all getting loads of new colours but these seem to be fading a bit.

Any help??

 

[james41683]

Hi, I am a newbie as far as keeping fish is concerned.

We have a tank in work (think its a 60 ltr capacity) with 6 cichlids in it. The smallest of the lot ( I think its a firebird, it is greyish with stripes) has been hiding in rocks for the last few days and I thought that it was getting hassle from the others as one or two are aggressively chasing the others around at the moment. I noticed today that most of its fin tail is missing. I have read a few forums this morning and cannot figure out whether its fin rot or if it was attacked by one of the others. It seems to be eating ok but it doesnt move around the tank very far and is constantly looking for places to shelter.

Can anyone suggest what it could be? I also notice that some of the fish appear dirty.. There is a yellow one and he has what appears to be a dirt stripe all the way across the top of its back. The others look a bit scruffy too. I have recently changed about 1/2 of the tank water. They didnt appear this dirty before this. In fact they were all getting loads of new colours but these seem to be fading a bit.

Any help??

if my conversion is correct, 60 liters is about 15 gallons, which is way too small for african cichlids, except shellies. the missing tail is probably an aggression issue. "dirty" looking fish are usually a sign of poor genetics or stress, you said they were colorful before and now aren't so i'm gonna go with stress. if you could give your water parameters and stocking list more help can be provided, i bigger tank would definitely help out alot.

 

[AKIRELAND]

Hi, I was wrong with the size..its a juwel lido tank 120 litres which equates to 32 US gallons. I have checked the water levels and all are ok, nitrates, ph etc all good. There are 6 fish altogether, 2 firebirds, 3 electric blues and 1 electric yellow. One of the electric blues is about 6inches and was the original fish (2 others died). We then introduced the rest (last October) and they were all roughly the same size initially. However they have all grown substantially except for this little fella (the one with no tail).

I have noticed in the last week that one of the electric blue's is chasing the rest of the fish constantly (even after the big fella). This seems to happen from time to time, they go a couple of weeks as friends and then all of sudden the chasing starts up again. There are plenty of hiding places. I would love to put some pictures up to show you but it keeps asking me for a URL and i cant figure out how to post them from my pc.

Any further suggestions? Cheers

 

[james41683]

Hi, I was wrong with the size..its a juwel lido tank 120 litres which equates to 32 US gallons. I have checked the water levels and all are ok, nitrates, ph etc all good. There are 6 fish altogether, 2 firebirds, 3 electric blues and 1 electric yellow. One of the electric blues is about 6inches and was the original fish (2 others died). We then introduced the rest (last October) and they were all roughly the same size initially. However they have all grown substantially except for this little fella (the one with no tail).

I have noticed in the last week that one of the electric blue's is chasing the rest of the fish constantly (even after the big fella). This seems to happen from time to time, they go a couple of weeks as friends and then all of sudden the chasing starts up again. There are plenty of hiding places. I would love to put some pictures up to show you but it keeps asking me for a URL and i cant figure out how to post them from my pc.

Any further suggestions? Cheers

could you give the length and width of the tank? 32 gallons is still alittle small, but can work with the right species. try
uploading your pictures to somewhere like photobucket.com, it's free, the click the link under the pics and paste it in your post here. i believe photobucket tells you which link to use to post on forums. once we know what you have we could help single out and "trouble" species.

 

[AKIRELAND]

Hi again, bad news! The little one died over the weekend. I still cant figure out whether it was Fin Rot or agression. One of the electric blues is chasing every other fish around the place for the last week (except for the other firebird which it seems to ignore). Have a look at the photos. The tank is 61 x41x 58 cms. In the other shot you can see the little fella. I know the qualityt is a bit out but you can make out his missing tail. I am now worried that the others could either get sick or be attacked, whichever is happening.

Believe it or not I have a small little fantail goldfish tank at home (2ft x 1ft x 1ft) and one of them died at the weekend also!